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August Entry - The Nine Bridges of Atayama

Whether I can finish this or not is still in question, but I'm going to try to enter. This is a ficticious location in the style of the Inca of a terraced mountain top temple city, road, bridgework and defenses. This is the Yncan temple city of Kapsu-Machu-Panu on Mount Cuzcumanu of the Gods' Wall Mountains. This will be a hidden city, but not a ruined city, as the empire still controls this holy location. We'll see how it turns out.

I haven't posted anything, but I plan to do the map this weekend, however, I am going to need to change the title to this thread (CL please) to: August Entry - The Nine Bridges of Atayama.

This week I started the preliminary ideas for an adventure set in Kaidan involving Atayama or 'red mountain' which is the ancient home for a village of Tengu, that has been abandoned due to incursions by yurei ghosts and oni demon spirits. However at the summit of the mountain, at the Shrine to the Kami - Father Wind, trapped within the holy grounds is the Daitengu or King Tengu of the mountain. Though he is nearly immortal, if he leaves the confines of the shrine grounds he will age instantly and turn to dust, thus he cannot leave and fight off the spiritual cancer that haunts his mountain. A party of adventurers is needed to cleanse the mountain of its dark spirits and free the mountain of its curse.

A road traverses up the elevations from the river valley below to the summit over a thousand feet above it. Multiple crevices cut into the side of the mountain prevent one continuous road to reach the Shrine to Father Wind, and nine wooden bridges cross those crevices. Each bridge is guarded by a bound spirit that will attempt to prevent crossing - some are bound kami spirits, some are yurei ghosts, some are oni demons, some are simply cursed and require an action to bypass its danger. The road, the summit shrine and the nine bridges could easily serve as an entire adventure location allowing climbers to gain a full level of experience in the attempt.

Finally got started!

I finally found time this evening to get a start on this challenge. Incidentally, I misspelled, the mountain is called Akayama (not Ata...) which means Red Mountain. This is an abandoned Tengu Mountain, that has been cursed by evil spirits, however, the daitengu or 'king tengu' of the mountain is trapped in his holy shrine residence at the top of the mountain. Nine bridges need to be crossed to reach the summit and each is guarded by a different evil spirit that must be defeated or tricked to bypass. A spiritual wind encircles the mountain preventing flight, a part of the curse located here.

All the linework is hand-drawn of course, I scanned on my large format scanner and imported to Xara Xtreme. I decided to use my stacked elevations of beveled shapes technique as I felt it would work best to show the trail climbing up the slopes of the mountain. Hand placing the shadows beneath the nine bridges really make them look good, I think.

Tomorrow I will draw and place some buildings and shrines at the near the various bridges, and some conifer trees in the bottom lands and lower part of the slopes. Then I will label this map, create a separate legend and call it done - so I should finish tomorrow.

If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden